‘Estrada hallucinating on return to Palace’

"He is hallucinating and daydreaming."

This was the reaction of Ombudsman Prosecutor III Antonio Manzano on the earlier pronouncement made by jailed former President Joseph Estrada in an interview over GMA-7 the other day that he should be returned to Malacañang once acquitted by the anti-graft court special division.

Estrada, who is facing four criminal cases including the capital offense of plunder, as well as two perjury cases and one case on illegal use of an alias, was interviewed by "Unang Hirit" anchorman Arnold Clavio.

"Assuming he is acquitted," Manzano said, "how can he return to Malacañang when the end of the presidency is June 30, 2004. It is only 17 months away from now."

"By the time the trial of Mr. Estrada’s cases is finished, the term of office allotted for Mr. Estrada which was continued by President Arroyo, would already be expired. What term of office is he now talking about that he wanted to claim?" he added.

Manzano noted that the prosecution panel is set to finish its presentation of the remaining 12 witnesses and the submission of various documents in connection with Estrada’s four cases by January next year.

However, he said that the remaining 17 months before the presidential elections in May 2004 will not be enough for the defense panel to finish its presentation of documentary evidence and witnesses.

"Now given the situation, how can Mr. Estrada return to Malacañang? Is he going to stage a coup d’ etat or launch a violent takeover?" Manzano asked, adding that it was an old ploy of the former president to gain media mileage.

Estrada said that he is unlikely to get justice from the anti-graft court special division since its acting presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario, and members Associate Justices Edilberto Sandoval and Teresita Leonardo De Castro, were handpicked by the Arroyo administration.

"The special division is created and designed to convict me that is why I cannot expect getting justice from this court," he said.

Recognizing the impartiality of the Supreme Court (SC), he said he also tried his luck filing a petition at the High Tribunal questioning the legality of the administration of President Arroyo.

"But the Supreme Court ‘cooked’ my petition and junked it," Estrada said.

Manzano, however, dismissed his pronouncements, saying it was an old remark. "We are in a democracy and it is Mr. Estrada’s democratic right to speak his mind," he said.

In a related development, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) junked the request of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) for additional budget for 2003.

The PCGG, which is trying to recover $5 to $10 billion in ill-gotten wealth, has proposed a P10.261 million increase in its budget for "other services," mainly to recruit more lawyers considering the volume of cases that it is handling.

Aside from the existing 37 banner cases, PCGG lawyers are now pursuing over 400 behest loan cases used to be handled by the now-defunct Presidential Ad-Hoc Committee on Behest Loans. – With Sheila Crisostomo